Bury St Edmunds buildings [10]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 13 Sep 2020

Number 17 Abbeygate Street was built as a house and printing office, later a shop with offices above, now a shop with flats above. Timber framed and stuccoed the building has an early 19th century front on a 15th century structure with an early 20th century shop front. Restored in the 1980s. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1328858 Abbeygate Street is the principal shopping street of the town. Bury St Edmunds is a market town which is the cultural and retail centre for West Suffolk and is known for brewing (Greene King) and sugar (British Sugar). There is scattered evidence of earlier activity but essentially Bury St Edmunds began as one of the royal boroughs of the Saxons and a monastery was founded which became the burial place of King Edmund. A new Benedictine abbey was built in 1020 which became rich and powerful and the town was laid out on a grid pattern by Abbot Baldwin. After the dissolution the abbey became ruinous. A new church, later the cathedral, was begun in the early 16th century.

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